2. Collection Description in the

3. 1 November 2001Collection Description in the Archives Hub Archival perspective Collection description has always been central to archival theory ‘Fonds’ Technically ‘fonds’ and ‘collection’ are not the same thing

4. 1 November 2001Collection Description in the Archives Hub Definition of a Fonds “…the whole of the documents, regardless of form or medium, automatically and organically created and/or accumulated and used by a particular individual, family or corporate body in the course of that creator's activities or functions.” Rules for Archival Description Bureau of Canadian Archivists, 1990

5. 1 November 2001Collection Description in the Archives Hub Definition of a Collection A unit of material that is artificially created or brought together on the basis of some common characteristic, such as subject, language, etc. Fonds and collections are actually dealt with in the same ways by archivists.

6. 1 November 2001Collection Description in the Archives Hub Archives Hub JISC-funded service Provides access to descriptions of archives held in university and college libraries across the UK Capable of holding entire catalogues

7. Typical archive Bloggs and Sons

8. Typical archive Bloggs and Sons Minute BooksAccountsCorrespondence

9. Typical archive Bloggs and Sons Minute BooksAccountsCorrespondence LedgersCash BooksDay Books

10. Typical archive Bloggs and Sons Minute BooksAccountsCorrespondence LedgersCash BooksDay Books  Item level description Fonds level description

11. 1 November 2001Collection Description in the Archives Hub Current situation 10% of Archives Hub descriptions are multi-level JISC’s priority is comprehensiveness of coverage throughout the sector: the detail can come later

12. 1 November 2001Collection Description in the Archives Hub Archives Hub approach Standards-based Data structure is ISAD(G) Data format is EAD

13. 1 November 2001Collection Description in the Archives Hub EAD

14. 1 November 2001Collection Description in the Archives Hub EAD Elegant Acronym Deficiency? Extremely Addled Data? Engendering Archivists’ Despair?

15. 1 November 2001Collection Description in the Archives Hub Encoded Archival Description “…is a set of rules for designating the intellectual and physical parts of archival finding aids so that the information contained therein may be searched, retrieved, displayed, and exchanged in a predictable platform- independent manner.” EAD Tag Library Version 1.0

16. 1 November 2001Collection Description in the Archives Hub Basic EAD file structure EAD header (Information about the file’s creation etc.) Front matter (Optional – can generate a title page) Archival description (The finding aid itself)

17. 1 November 2001Collection Description in the Archives Hub Comprises : –an overview of the whole finding aid, with certain key elements contained in the (Descriptive Identification) wrapper –descriptions of the component parts (if listed), contained in the (Description of Subordinate Components) wrapper

18. Hub EAD beetle sub-fonds descriptions

19. 1 November 2001Collection Description in the Archives Hub Advantages of EAD (1) Compliant with ISAD(G) Designed to handle complex finding aids Enables the exchange of data between repositories

20. 1 November 2001Collection Description in the Archives Hub Advantages of EAD (2) Files produced in the EAD format are portable : not dependent on any one program or system Text editors are cheap compared with proprietary systems Emerging as an international standard

21. 1 November 2001Collection Description in the Archives Hub Data Submission Repositories can generate their own EAD… …or they can use the template on the Archives Hub’s website. Contributors follow fairly detailed guidelines, also available on the websitewebsite

22. 1 November 2001Collection Description in the Archives Hub Data storage At present, all descriptions (over 4,000 files) are stored centrally at Manchester Computing Each repository’s SGML files are stored in separate sub-directories on the server In future, the plan is to enable repositories to host and edit their own data

23. 1 November 2001Collection Description in the Archives Hub Searching the data Once mounted on the server, the files are indexed using ‘Cheshire II’ retrieval software The descriptions may then be searched in a variety of ways Currently around 200 searches a day

24. 1 November 2001Collection Description in the Archives Hub And finally… reinforced concrete physical vapour deposition evening standard headlines 4th july 1964 archivesofelectoralregistersforwillesdenl ondon pineapple butt rot

25. 1 November 2001Collection Description in the Archives Hub Contact details Email: amanda.hill@man.ac.uk archiveshub@mimas.ac.uk Tel: 0161 275 6055 (direct line) www: http://www.archiveshub.ac.uk